TY - JOUR PY - 2021// TI - 'To serve and be abused': the use of adolescent girls as waitresses in outdoor drinking bars in Lagos, Nigeria JO - Journal of child sexual abuse A1 - Aborisade, Richard Abayomi SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - This qualitative study examined the risk exposure, nature, and incidents of sexual and other forms of abuse experienced by underage waitresses. Fourteen female bartenders of outdoor pubs within Lagos metropolis between the ages of 13-15 years, and 10 bar owners/managers of pubs with underage waitresses, were engaged in the study, while an inductive thematic analysis of the narratives was carried out. The engagement of young girls as waitresses was predicated on their being considered as sources of cheap labor by bar owners/managers, and as easier to be sexually victimized by the customers. The structural power-differential between bar patrons and waitresses, bar management's rules against workers confronting customers, and the unequal power relation based on age gap were conditions that fueled the vulnerability of underage servers as suitable targets for abuse.

FINDINGS from this study portend considerable physical, mental, sexual, and emotional risks for the young waitresses which call for more research and policy interventions.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1053-8712 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2021.1985674 ID - ref1 ER -